Markymarks road to Iceland

Wow...............What an adventure.

I started the journey to Fire and Ice 2018 race HQ on Saturday 25th August 2018. Early morning train from Norwich to Heathrow via the London underground. It was pretty cold on the platform at 5.30am (good preparation for my destination though). At Heathrow, I had a bit of time before my flight, so milled around for a bit, before going for a full breakfast at London's Pride bar. I was seated next to Ade Adepitan, the para Olympian. I thought about getting an autograph, but he was eating and didn't want to disturb him.

After a while, I met up with a couple of fellow competitors, Dan and Chris, who had travelled down from Newcastle.

After an eventful flight to Reykjavik, we embarked on the 2nd flight of the day under blue skies to Akureyri. The blue skies changed to grey and the relatively warm temperatures in Reykjavik dropped to a colder climate in Akureyri. On this journey, I met another Brit, Tony from Essex.

It was a short drive from the Airport through the Picturesque City (town) of Akureyri to the race HQ, where i was allocated a twin room. I was sharing with Laars from Germany, who had arrived earlier in the day. It was a first time in Iceland for him too. I arrived quite late in the evening and Laars kindly gave me some food that he had managed to buy earlier in the day. The evening was spent having a vigorous kit check, kit specifications were checked, everything on the list was checked for it being present and that it was of a correct standard. at the time, I felt it was a bit over the top. However, now I've completed the race, can now understand why the crew were a bit Anal about the kit checks. That done, it was left for me to have a 20 minute chat with the doctors and medics and then after repacking my pack I need to get to my bed,m ready for the journey to the start line the next
day.

We had 63 competitors from 23 nationalities starting on day 1. Before the start, we had to get to the campsite which was located on the edge of a Glacier. From start to finish, the coach journey which included a few tourists stops was 10 hours, a lot of which was off road.waterfall and river crossing....click to watch

Not an ideal race prep, the day before, to be bounced around in a bus for a long period of time. Campsite reached, I went to my allocated tent (mine was tent 8), where I met the majority of my tent mates for the first time. Tony from Essex was one of them. The others were Paul from Northern Ireland, Marianne from Norway, Quintin from Spain, Olivier from France, and Georgeta from Romania. Great tent of people, I have to say.

Things weren't boding well, when whilst blowing up my sleep mat, the valve decided to come apart, rendering the mat useless. I figured out that it could possibly be repaired with superglue. went to see the race crew and within 5 minutes, Alan was there with some duck tape and between us we repaired the valve for the time being. I cant rate the race crew enough, they were so so helpful, nothing was too much aggravation. They were fantastic.
So I'm now ready to race. Only thing between us and the start was a freezing cold night in a tent. We woke up to a frost and a feeling of " I just want to start running now", but having to do but wait 3 hours, with nothing to do. The race crew understandably needed to get the tents down, ready to move to the next campsite. But this created a situation in the cold, whereby we had 30 - 45 minutes before the start with no shelter from the cold, just walking round trying to keep warm, thinking "cant we just get going".

Start time finally arrives, but we cant start until we've done the traditional Icelandic clap, which involves someone banging a drum, and then everyone follows the bang with a clap, and gradually the drum beats and claps get quicker and quicker. Icelandic clap

start day 1

9am, and off we go (hooray) down a track for half a mile, then up a steep incline for about half a mile. I had to take some layers off at the top as I was starting to cook. the route then took us off the peak and back down the other side, then 8 miles later, we end up back to where we started, and this was checkpoint 1. start to checkpoint 1 By this stage, I must have bundled over about 4 times. The terrain is loose and uneven and requires some much concentration. the rest of the route was down a loose stone track.

I felt pretty good at the end even though the wind had increased dramatically.
When I got to the new campsite, people were tying tents to vehicles to stop them blowing away. we had a windy sleep deprived night, and we woke up to a snow covered landscape and freezing temperatures.windy tent 8

The route consisted of loose stone tracks, and ended with a lava field. These things are solid, uneven and brutal on the legs, ankles and feet and are extremely hard to run on. Campsite was next to a stream. All in all day 2 was a steady day.

wheels came off...........😢

I woke up at 2am the next morning with extreme pain my back, so I took 2 of my strong painkillers, which normally do the trick quite quickly and get me moving. But not this time. Fearing that this was probably my race end, I tried to get in a position of ease, hoping that it would fade enough. I waited till 6am before going to the race crews hut to see the medics. I knocked on the door and Andy
answered, and he told me to wait in the tea urn Gazebo whilst he woke the medics up. whilst waiting Alan came in to fill the tea urn up with water, and him unknowing of my situation, gave me a good morning man hug. Top bloke was so apologetic when he realised.

A few minutes later, gingerly went back to race crew hut to see the medics. I started to explain what

the problem was and then the next thing I know, I'm on the floor after feeling faint. This all took
place in front of the Race crew, who were having their breakfast.

The medics felt my back and confirmed that it was in spasm and told me that they could give me Diazepam to relax the muscles, but it would need to be of the internal variety. I really didn't care at that stage, i just wanted rid of the pain.

I'd gone quick enough on the first 2 days to be in the quickest group. There was 3 start times on day 3, starting with the slowest competitors at 7.30am and then the 2nd group at 8am and then I was due to start at 8.30am. The doctor said he would hope to get me going by 8am, so that i would have
people starting behind me.. 8am came and went and i wasn't ready to go.I didn't even make the 8.30 start. It was a further 15 minutes before I got going. Straight into a blizzard.start of day 3 Day 3 took us around the base of the Queen (highest peak in Iceland) and had the usual Lava fields and uneven terrain. It was a tough day with pain and i had to walk it all. I think tent 8 were surprised when I
stuck my head through the flap. We were camped in a beautiful campsite overlooked by the Queen.
Lovely Lava field on day 3 ..click to watchThe medics checked me over and said that I could have another Diazepam in the morning if required. Thankfully I didn't. It had been a long day and I was tired from lack of sleep the night before, so I grabbed some food and got straight into my bag. The next day was the long distance day 44 miles ish.

Managed quite a good nights sleep. Race start on day 4 was 5.30am. It was -5 , but the sun

was just about to rise.Sun rise and Early morning sun on the river

My back was better, but I did try and run a couple of times, but it just wasn't having it. So pole walking was the mode, and by the end of day 4, I was getting quite proficient on them, managing 7km/hour average. The terrain today was uneven stuff, Lava fields HAVE A LOOK AT THIS, Gorse fields

, and 2 river crossings for good measure. As I've mentioned before the ground is uneven and the ankles are forever rolling and by the end of this day, I had developed a small blister on my right heel. Maybe i hadn't quite dried my feet properly after the river crossings. I wanted to make this my priority when got back to the tent. When your tired, its easy to leave things till later and then later never comes. I checked it, and it wasn't that big compared to the pain it was chucking out. so I lanced it and left it to dry out overnight, then put a compeed plaster on it in the morning. This seemed to do the trick.

Day 5 was the windiest💨 of the whole event. WINDY START TO DAY 5

The start headed across a gorse field (nightmare!!!!!) then onto an uneven track. Again tried to run but a gentle jog in places, is all I could muster..There was a sandy section today, just before we crossed a geyser field, where there were lots of tourists.

by the end, I felt that my back was more mobile and that hopefully I would be able to run the last 19km, after all I had come and had trained to run this race. After everyone had arrived back in at the campsite, we were given 2 treats, first being a small bottle of Coke, and oh my god, did that taste good and then we were driven to a hot spring for a dip.

it was great until we had to get out into the freezing air.
I had a great nights sleep.💤💤💤💤

Only 19km to Go.............. 😃 great advice

Another Windy and hilly route to finish Off the race.Managed to run most of the way, with slight
twinges going on. The course today had ridge after ridge. Cant remember any Lava fields, But I may have just got used to them or I didn't notice in the excitement of finishing. It was sunny but windy as I came to the last incline and i could see a town below and i knew it was the finish. As I descended , I could see the row of national flags that lined up to the finish line. Just the standing in the path was a Ram blocking the way. It was looking at me like it was going to charge at any second. i raised my walking poles and shouted at it, but it didn't budge an inch. So with the finish so close, I edged round it, keeping eye contact and waiting for any sign of an imminent head butt. Thankfully, it didn't move and I got past without incident. LAST VIDEO OF MY FIRE AND ICE ULTRA

As I was running towards the finish line I shouted that i would like the St Georges flag, rather than the Union Jack to finish with. I crossed the finish line, and as Dave the race director placed the medal
around my neck, I felt a big wave of emotion come over me and started to cry (Joy of course). I
didn't get like that when I finished the Marathon des Sable, in fact I got more emotional watching

other competitors, dragging themselves over the line. Perhaps it was because, this adventure was way tougher and it was me that had to drag myself to the finish line.

After spending 5 minutes or so feeling really emotional I went into the cafe that had been organised for us to have food (real food ). some people had beer, but i didn't fancy it. The food was an Icelandic soup, which was more like a lamb stew and it was gorgeous. After that myself and others went
outside to cheer the other finishers home.

I spoke to other competitors, that had also done MDS, and everyone of them said that Fire and Ice was tougher.

The return trip on the bus to Akureyri was quiet and uneventful. I think everyone was either sleeping or reflecting on the 6 days previous. Back at Akureyri, I unpacked my race bag, had a lie down and then repacked my big bag ready for the journey back to the UK the next morning. I then got ready to out for the presentation evening, which I anticipated as being a bit of food, lots of chat, couple of beers, prize giving to the top men and women and then back to the room for some needed sleep.

what actually happened was .......we were treated to a surprise boat trip,

we had some great food, lots of chat, prizes to the top 3 men and women were presented. I was then presented with The Hero Award, the recipient is chosen by the race crew. They said that I was awarded because, after they saw me on their hut floor on day 3, they didn't think I'd finish the day let
alone the whole event.

I consumed way more alcohol than intended and didn't get to my bed until 3am. I had to be on the minibus to the airport at 8.30, and luckily I woke up not much before that. Luckily I had packed the night before. I just had time to do a round of goodbyes before the trip home. Akureyri to Reykjavik, Reykjavik to Heathrow, National Express coach to Gatwick. Meet up with Paula and the Family and then Fly to Cyprus for a rest. THAT was the hardest race I've done

3 months post race

So following Iceland, I had a great 10 days in Cyprus, relaxing and eating and drinking.

This carried on back in the Uk, without the relaxing. If it had calories in it and it wasn’t nailed down,
then it was going in my mouth.

I tried running in the first few weeks back, but legs were heavy and I felt tired. I think it would probably be around the 6 weeks post race mark, when I actually felt ok to train again. So I’m now back to running 2 or 3 times a week, mountain biking at least once a week and the same for road biking.

And finally, I’ve had an addition to my leg thanks to #deerheartcollective.